A C.LANCE AT THE STARS. 



151 



LEO, situated next east of Cancer, and directly 

 j south of Leo Minor and Ursa Major, makes a fine 

 brilliant appearance in the sky, boasting 



' ; Two splendid stars of highest dignity ;" 



with several that are conspicuous objects. Regulus, 

 a star of the first magnitude, and Denebola, one of the 

 second, are about 25 apart, the former in the breast 

 of the Lion, hence often called Cor Leonis, the other 

 is situated in the tail. 



VIRGO, represented as a woman holding an ear of 

 corn, a mythological personage, has Leo on the east, 

 Coma Berenices on the north, and Cor v us on the 

 south. The asterism is rich in stars, the chief of 

 which is Spica Virginis, a first-class star in the 

 wheat-ear, known by its solitary splendour, there 

 being no visible star near it but one of the fourth 

 magnitude. For this reason, it was called by the 

 Arabs As-Simak-al-a > zal,t\iQ unarmed or defenceless 

 Simak. The place of this star, as determined by 

 Ilipparchus, compared with a similar determination a 

 century and a half before, led to the discovery of the 

 precession of the equinoxes. 



LIBRA, the balance, the em- 

 blem of the office of Virgo as 

 the goddess of justice, has four 

 subordinate but still conspicuous 

 stars. They form a quadrila- 

 teral figure, two on the north- 

 east, about 7 apart, and two on 

 the south-west, about 6 apart, 

 distinguishing the Scales. 



SCORPIO exhibits a beautiful 

 collection of stars. One of the 

 first magnitude, the fiery An- 

 tares, is a paramount object in 

 this region of the heavens. Four smaller stars form 

 an arc over him not unlike a boy's kite, and ten 

 more conspicuous extend from him in a crooked line, 

 answering to a kite's tail. 



SAGITTARIUS has none but subordinate stars, but 

 many of these are very distinct, and may be ranged 

 into a variety of geometrical figures. Eight of the 

 principal form two quadrangles, nearly alike, four in 

 and four out of the Milky Way, by which the con- 

 stellation is readily distinguished. 



CAPRICORNUS, with Cancer, is one of the least 

 striking of the zodiacal asterisms, but one of the 

 most celebrated among the ancients, as the sign under which Augustus and Vespasian 

 were born, hence accounted the harbinger of good fortune, and as marking the southern 



